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Topic: Steel plate (Read 57002 times)

I have been pursuing New York Pizza, with good oven spring, by heating my 20 year old Pizza Gourmet stone to 650 by fooling my thermostat on my electric oven. I am interested in not raising my oven above 550 and still getting good oven spring and char. Cordierite seems the best option, but Scott123 has mentioned steel plate. Any experience out there with steel/cast iron? Any sources of steel? I like a 14 to 16 inch pizza. There are pizza ovens with steel decks. Do they cook at lower temps because of the unique qualities of steel? Can you tell the difference between commercial ovens with steel versus firebrick?

Maybe the best/fastest way to learn about the differences between baking on steel rather than stone is to call the folks at Roto-Flex (http://www.rotoflexoven.com/) since they make a rotating deck oven that can use steel decks or stone decks (I believe the stone decks are a retrofit).

scott123

Mark, the threads from Peter are a useful read, but it's important to remember that Heston is working with a 1/8" thick cast iron pan and Outatime's pan, although the edge of the base is 1/3", the pizza baking surface, like most cast iron, is 1/8" as well. Rotoflex is also relatively light gauge, relying on the convecting hot air to feed the deck/bake the pizza rather than the heat stored in the steel deck itself. My 1/2" steel plate suggestion is based on the premise that 1/2" will give you the necessary specific heat to store enough energy to cook the entire bottom of pizza. At 16 x 16 x .5, we're talking a beast- about 40 lb. of mass.

It's best to obtain the steel plate locally. 40 lb can really drive up the shipping charges.

To be honest, although iron and steel have some history with pizza, 1/2" plate is an entirely new frontier. It's all theoretical. I stand behind the theory and the math, but, until someone actually buys a plate and starts baking with it, it's just theory. My soapstone slab gives me 4 minute pies at 525, and, with some futzing, 2.5 minute pies at 550 (the broiler keeps shutting off, but if I baby it, I can get good top browning). Since 4 minutes is my ideal bake time, I'm not running out to get steel. Soapstone doesn't really help sub 525 oven owners, though, so I've started recommending steel. Right now, if someone's oven doesn't go above 500, steel is their only hope.

I'm cutting it a little close on the thermal mass, but, because of the weight of the steel, I have no other choice. As I said before 16 x 16 x .5 weighs around 40 lb. As you go up to 3/4" thick, that jumps to 60 lb. As much as I like that much thermal mass, I can't recommend people put a 60 lb. plate on an oven shelf. 1/2" steel has about the same specific heat as 1/2" cordierite. The steel should be far more effective at transferring more of it's heat to the pizza, though. With cordierite, after 4 minutes, the part near the pizza will be much cooler than the outer extremities of the stone. The cordierite will have hot and cold areas. With the increased conductivity of the steel, their will be a greater equilibrium in temperature- and thus more overall transfer of energy.

Thanks for the input guys. Pete, I read the old posts using cast iron. I suppose my desire for a 14 to 16 inch pie makes using cast iron difficult, and the thinness does concern me. I called Lodge cast iron today, and they were of no help with the potential of a custom large pizza cast iron pan. Scott, the idea of steel fascinates me. I have been making pizzas for years off and on, but when I cranked up my oven to 650 to heat my Pizza Gourmet stone (firebrick?), the oven spring blew me away. I stepped into the big leagues, and don't want to go back down. Unfortunately, because of a fire years ago with a lot of property damage, I just don't sleep well at night after monkeying around with my oven. I will be on the hunt for steel ( hot rolled, that is ) and will report on my findings.

Scott, it is 16"x16"x3/4" need to sand it and have no idea what type of steel it is, but it has surface rust and is extremely heavy. Scott, how long do you think it might take to heat? You know i am always up for something new right? -marc

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scott123

Pre-heat time is where steel really shines. I don't have any numbers to crunch for this, but I'm guessing your piece should preheat to 475 (a ballpark of what I'd recommend for a 4 minute NY style pie) in less than 30 minutes. It might even be up to temperature in as little as 15. I'd also be very curious to see how it performs for Neapolitan. In theory, with a 550 degree preheat and a position close to the broiler (to maximize top browning speed), breaking the two minute barrier is more than possible. If I can do 2.5 minutes with soapstone @ 550 and steel is as much as 10 times more conductive, breaking the two minute barrier is a piece of cake. A minute and a half is firmly in the Neapolitan territory, right?

Are you relatively certain that your oven shelf can handle the weight? Like I said before, you could be dealing with a 60 lb. hunk of metal there. You also might want to consider the logistics of getting it into the oven, as you definitely don't want to slide the shelf with the steel on it, nor do you want to slide the steel on the shelf.

Scott, this sounds like a good project for a noreaster while being trapped in the house. Turns out thats today and tommorow. Due to the weight, I may start with it on the bottom of my oven, that is where the gas burns anyways. I'll adjust for balance as needed, if it does not take out one of my shelves. I'll let you know what happens. -marc

Located hot roll steel in Scranton. Company will cut 17 by 17 by half inch tomorrow and I will pick it up in the afternoon. $40 bucks, plus $2 for tax. Did a try weight test on my cheap Kenmore electric oven shelf and it held 40 pounds of weights fine, with just moderate flex. Oh baby, can't wait for a trial run!

I've been looking for a thread like this...I have a Cadco convection oven 1/2 size with steam injection/control. Cadco has designed something they call a Fakiro plate. Its a Teflon coated aluminum plate in 1/4, 1/2 and full size, that has nubbins coming off the bottom for pick up heat. They recommend it for pizza. Recently they introduced a plate that is "aluminized steel", Teflon coated in the same sizes and a much lower price that is just a plate. I've used the Fakiro plate for some time and the results are stunning. I just received the lower cost steel plate yesterday and will be trying it in the next few days, I hope its as efficient as the Fakiro with the nubbins.

I've been wondering lately (after giving up on pizza stones) if absorption of moisture from the bottom of a pizza is a falacy. After using the conductive plate I think the moisture is driven out the top of the crust and not absorbed by the hot stone underneath. I have a very crispy crust on my pizzas that's almost glass like in nature. I'm really interested to hear what others who have tired conductive plates have to say.

Interesting Ron. The 20inch aluminized steel plate will not fit in my oven. The depth on my cheap electric Kenmore is about 18 and one half inch. What is the thickness of the aluminized plate? At what temp have you been cooking your pies? I just picked up my hot roll 17 by 17 by half-inch plate today. It looks pretty clean, without much rust, so I may just wash it with soap and water, and dry it well. Maybe a light coat of peanut oil, but I am not sure if it will burn at 500. The surface should be food safe to cook on, or I could wrap with aluminum foil. Well, tonight, I will mix my dough, cold ferment for 2 or 3 days, and crank up my oven this weekend. Mark

Also, how do you guys think steel will perform in relation to cast iron? I have a lodge cast Iron pizza pan, but I think I know a way we can get some steel "stones" or something...just give me a thickness and size or something!

I've been looking for a thread like this...I have a Cadco convection oven 1/2 size with steam injection/control. Cadco has designed something they call a Fakiro plate. Its a Teflon coated aluminum plate in 1/4, 1/2 and full size, that has nubbins coming off the bottom for pick up heat. They recommend it for pizza. Recently they introduced a plate that is "aluminized steel", Teflon coated in the same sizes and a much lower price that is just a plate. I've used the Fakiro plate for some time and the results are stunning. I just received the lower cost steel plate yesterday and will be trying it in the next few days, I hope its as efficient as the Fakiro with the nubbins.

I've been wondering lately (after giving up on pizza stones) if absorption of moisture from the bottom of a pizza is a falacy. After using the conductive plate I think the moisture is driven out the top of the crust and not absorbed by the hot stone underneath. I have a very crispy crust on my pizzas that's almost glass like in nature. I'm really interested to hear what others who have tired conductive plates have to say.

buceriasdon

I conducted some pizza experiments last month in my old toaster oven for the monthly challenge, tops out at 410F, using 1/8" hot rolled seasoned steel plate and 5/8" unglazed ceramic tile both 12" square. I guess I could have built up a stack of steel to match the tile but even at the reduced thickness the steel outperformed the tile in every respect that I thought was important, heat up time and eveness of baking. With the tile I had to turn the pizza more frequently for even baking but never turned the pizza on the steel. This same piece of steel used to be under the tile in my LBE but I removed it as the bottom was getting done too quickly. OK, that's all I have to offer. Don